Journalist gunned down in another possible case of post-electoral violence

Reporters Without Borders is outraged by weekly reporter Nestor Bedolido’s murder on 19 June on the southern island of Mindanao. He was the third journalist to be gunned down in the past week in the Philippines. “We again urge governmental and judicial authorities to quickly do everything necessary to ensure that this murder is thoroughly investigated and that the police do not neglect the possibility that it was linked to local politics and the victim’s work as a journalist.” Reporters Without Borders said. A reporter for Kastigador (a weekly funded by a group of local politicians), Bedolido, 50, was shot six times by two men that escaped on a motorcycle on the evening of 19 June near a bar he owned in Digos City (in Davao Del Sur province). He died while being rushed to hospital. Colleagues said he was very critical of an influential politician in Davao Del Sur. He had also written about the head of the provincial electoral commission. His son, Marxlen Bedolido, 21, said he was convinced he was murdered because of his journalistic work. Davao Del Sur police chief Ronald dela Rosa nonetheless insisted in a statement to the local media that Bedolido was no longer a “practising journalist.” Bedolido was the third journalist to be killed in similar circumstances since 14 June.